From News-Medical, Press Release
NEPHRON+ project improves lives of kidney failure patients by developing wearable artificial kidney device
End stage kidney disease is a global public health problem with an estimated 2.4 million patients on dialysis. The number of new cases is rising (7-8% annually) due to population ageing and increased diabetes prevalence. The NEPHRON+ project is improving the lives of patients by developing a wearable artificial kidney device, enabled with information and communication technologies for remote monitoring.
Chronic kidney disease will affect one in ten of us at some point in our lives. For those of us unlucky enough to suffer renal failure as a result, the health consequences can be disastrous.
Without treatment kidney failure is deadly. However, even the best treatments are not ideal. Patients have to be treated with a dialysis machine at home or in hospital, sometimes as often as once every four hours. Patients spend a large part of their lives connected to dialysis equipment. What's more, the life expectancy of a person in their 20s who has suffered kidney failure is just 20 years, unless they're lucky enough to receive a donated organ.
All this could change, however. An EU-funded research consortium has been developing a wearable artificial kidney that would make it possible for dialysis patients to lead a more full and active life while adding another 10 to 16 years to their life expectancy.
The future of wearable dialysis
The NEPHRON+ WAKD (Wearable Artificial Kidney Device) is currently undergoing animal trials and will have to pass several rounds of stringent tests in humans before it is ready to be used by all patients with kidney disease. However, the project has reached a stage where commercial partners are ready to take the technology to the next stage. With kidney failure rates on the rise and pressure on hospitals to find more cost effective and clinically effective treatments, the market for wearable dialysis devices could be worth as much as a €15 billion per year, according to Dr Leonidas Lymberopoulos, project coordinator.
The advantages of wearable dialysis
The NEPHRON+ system works like a conventional dialysis machine, taking the patient's blood and passes it through a number of filters, removing waste products that would be excreted in a healthy patient's urine and making sure that the patient's blood pressure stays at a safe level. The patient can see the monitored data via their smartphone. What's more, the data can be sent to the patient's specialist doctor, so that their condition can be monitored at all times. But the wearable device will reduce the chance that a patient has to go to hospital for emergency treatment as constant dialysis is much more effective than intermittent treatment. [Read more]
From Niagara This Week, Niagara Falls, NY
Spring is a time of renewal — and also a time to declutter.
And while most unwanted items end up in a landfill or at the curb for anyone to take, there is an alternative that can help rid a household of unwanted items and help someone who needs it.
The David Gregory MacKinnon Memorial Foundation has built a partnership with the Niagara Health System's Kidney Care Team that allows the foundation to offer financial aid to the renal/dialysis patients who need it.
David MacKinnon was on dialysis at the age of 17 his monthly medication costs were often in excess of $2,000 and he had no access to health benefits. During the 11 months leading up to David's death he was on dialysis for 12 hours per day, seven days per week.
On April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the foundation will be collecting unwanted textiles and electronics at One Stop Fireplace Shop at 4332 Drummond Rd. De-cluttering and donating will steer those unwanted items away from the landfill and put dollars into the pockets of David's Foundation to offer financial aid to renal patients in need.
For more information, call Foundation president Michelle MacKinnon at 905-246-0856.
Allen F. Scioli has been getting dialysis treatments for about five years, most recently at Southtowns Dialysis in Hamburg, which does not have backup power. He’s angered by the fact that the State of New York does not require dialysis providers to have it.
Scioli is speaking out and demanding changes when it comes to the lack of backup power at some dialysis facilities and he isn’t the least bit worried about ruffling feathers.
“I kept asking what happens if we have a power outage. You’re going to put everybody here in danger,” Scioli, a retired West Seneca police lieutenant said. “I figure who’s not going to like me? The administrators? The corporation? I could care less. People are what counts.”
Kidney dialysis is a life-support treatment that uses a special machine to filter harmful wastes and excess fluids from the blood. The patient is hooked up to a machine that takes over the kidneys’ job of filtering blood.
Traumatic for patients
“It’s a very, very traumatic experience for a patient to go on dialysis,” says Dr. Brian Murray, chief medical officer at Erie County Medical Center, which operates a kidney dialysis clinic that has backup power because it’s part of the hospital. [Read more]
From MarketWatch.com, Press Release
The Renal Physicians Association released a free iPad app to assist nephrologists with shared decision-making (SDM) and pain and symptom management for acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients at the point of care.
Adam Weinstein, MD, a RPA Board Member and the leader of the app development team, explains that the RPA SDM Toolkit app is an interactive, workflow-driven version of the RPA's Clinical Practice Guideline on Shared Decision Making in the Appropriate Initiation of and Withdrawal from Dialysis, 2nd Edition. It offers nephrologists the tools and recommendations with which they can aid adult and pediatric patients who have AKI, CKD, or ESRD in initiating, withholding and withdrawing dialysis. This app combines the benefits of the evidence-based guideline -- consensus expert opinion informed by ethical principles, case and statutory law, and systematic review of research evidence -- with a step-by-step approach to working through the process of decision making and symptom assessment with the patient and family in real time. [Read more]
From IT Business Net, Press Release
Dialysis Clinic, Inc., Selects Sandlot Solutions to Support Comprehensive End-Stage Renal Disease Care Initiative
New Technology Platform Will Aid a Company-Wide Initiative to Improve Quality and Care Coordination Across All Facilities
Sandlot Solutions, a leading community health interoperability and analytics provider, today announced the beginning of a five-year contract with Dialysis Clinic, Inc. (DCI), a nonprofit corporation providing comprehensive care for patients with kidney disease. Sandlot's health information technology solutions will help DCI achieve effective clinical interoperability. The ability to exchange clinical data and share information across health systems will enable DCI to deliver exceptional care management and improved patient outcomes. A certified Medicare dialysis provider operating in 28 states, DCI will implement two Sandlot modules, Sandlot Connect, for comprehensive data gathering and exchange, and Sandlot Dimensions, which combines a data warehouse with business intelligence tools.
"We are honored to partner with Sandlot Solutions to improve the coordination of care for our patients. Currently many providers often operate in separate silos and are unable to see the care given by other providers to patients with kidney disease. With our new partnership with Sandlot, different providers in each community will be able to obtain a better view of the overall care of patients with kidney disease and will be able to communicate in a secure manner as they partner to improve care for patients with kidney disease. In addition, we will have the capacity to evaluate the cost of care and determine which of our new interventions are most effective at providing better care, at a lower cost to patients with kidney disease," said Doug Johnson, MD, Vice Chairman of the DCI Board of Directors.
The technology solutions provided by Sandlot will also support DCI's long-term goal of becoming a CMS ESRD Seamless Care Organization (ESCO). ESRD patients make up 1.3% of all Medicare beneficiaries and nearly 7.5% of U.S. Medicare spending. This CMS initiative is designed to test new payment and service delivery models in order to achieve higher quality and more patient-centered care for the ESRD population. [Read more]
Gift of Life
From Sky News, United Kingdom, By Siobhan Robbins
Big Increase In 'Stranger' Kidney Donations
Altruistic donations rise dramatically in seven years but thousands of patients are still on the waiting list for transplants.
The number of people donating their kidneys to strangers has risen dramatically in the last seven years.
So-called altruistic donation first became possible in 2007. In that year, just three kidneys were donated but last year some 107 donations took place.
Tom Higgs, 13, waited for a transplant for five years after his kidneys failed. He had to have dialysis treatment 11 hours a day and he spent months in hospital until a donor was found.
"I would still be on dialysis but instead of having a tube I would have the needle kind of dialysis where I had to go to the hospital every day - that would have been even harder," he said.
Despite the rise in altruistic donations, some 5,650 people are currently waiting for a new kidney in the UK.
Tom Cledwyn, 28, decided to become a living donor, but he has no idea who the recipient was.
"Whilst my mum didn't have kidney failure, that doesn't mean that someone's mum doesn't," he said.
"Donating to someone I didn't know felt as compelling as if one of my friends or family members suffered from kidney failure."
Only a kidney or a lobe of liver can be given by a living donor. [Read more]
PKD Research
From 7th Space, Press Release
Hyperuricemia and deterioration of renal function in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease
The role of hyperuricemia in disease progression of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) has not been defined well. We investigated the association of serum uric acid (sUA) with renal function and the effect of hypouricemic treatment on the rate of renal function decline.
Methods: This is a single-center, retrospective, observational cohort study.
A total of 365 patients with ADPKD who had estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) >= 15 mL/min/1.73 m2 and who were followed up for >1 year were included in our analysis. Hyperuricemia was defined by a sUA level of >= 7.0 mg/dL in male and >= 6.0 mg/dL in female or when hypouricemic medications were prescribed.
Results: Hyperuricemia was associated with reduced initial eGFR, independent of age, sex, hypertension, albuminuria, and total kidney volume.
During a median follow-up period of over 6 years, patients with hyperuricemia showed a faster annual decline in eGFR (-6.3% per year vs. -0.9% per year, p = 0.008).
However, after adjusting for age, sex, hypertension and initial eGFR, sUA was no longer associated with either annual eGFR decline or the development of ESRD. Among 53 patients who received hypouricemic treatment, the annual eGFR decline appeared to be attenuated after hypouricemic treatment (pretreatment vs. posttreatment: -5.3 +/- 8. 2 vs. 0.2 +/- 6.2 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year, p = 0.001 by Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
Conclusions: Although hyperuricemia was associated with reduced eGFR, it was not an independent factor for renal progression in ADPKD. However, the correction of hyperuricemia may attenuate renal function decline in some patients with mild renal insufficiency.
Author: Miyeun HanHayne Cho ParkHyunsuk KimHyunga ChoHyuk HuhJoon Young JangAh-Young KangSeung Hyup KimHae Il CheongDuk-Hee KangJaeseok YangKook-Hwan OhYoung-Hwan HwangCurie Ahn
Credits/Source: BMC Nephrology 2014, 15:63
Associated Research
Not just that, using the concept of dialysis, the scientists here are also working to develop a bioartificial liver which can mimic the natural functions of human liver.
"In dialysis, only the toxins can be cleared from the blood. But the liver has other functions like maintaining blood sugar levels, synthesizing bile acids which take care of cholesterol, and secreting proteins crucial for blood clotting. The idea behind developing a bioartificial liver is to achieve near-natural function so that patients suffering from the organ failure can get a longer window period for transplant," said Dr S K Sarin, director, ILBS.
The institute, he said, has been working on the project for over two years and till now they have only been able to identify some of the human liver cells that can be cultured and induced to perform the hepatic functions by processing plasma of liver failure patients. "The matrix on which the cells will be cultured is being developed by IIT Kanpur researchers," Dr Sarin added.
The ILBS director said that many centres across the world are working on the project to develop a bio-artificial liver but there has been no breakthrough yet. Every year, one lakh people die in the country due to liver failure. At most, 1,000 lives are saved with liver transplant-the only treatment option available to such patients-due to lack of donors. [Read more]
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